681 



GREAT DISCOVERIES IN THE HEAVENS BY THE APPLICA- 

 TION OF THE TELESCOPE. PRINCIPAL EPOCHS IN 



THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS, 

 FROM GALILEO AND KEPLER TO NEWTON AND LEIBNITZ. 



LAWS OF THE PLANETARY MOTIONS AND GENERAL 



THEORY OF GRAVITATION. 



AFTER having endeavoured to enumerate the most distinctly 

 defined periods and stages of development in the history of 

 the contemplation of the universe, we have proceeded to 

 delineate the epoch in which the civilized nations of one 

 hemisphere became acquainted with the inhabitants of the 

 other. The period of the greatest discoveries in space over 

 the surface of our planet was immediately succeeded by the 

 revelations of the telescope, through which man may be said 

 to have taken possession of a considerable portion of the 

 heavens. The application of a newly created organ an 

 instrument possessed of the power of piercing the depths of 

 space calls forth a new world of ideas. Now began a brilliant 



stops, for the field of unknown causes and possible moral contingencies 

 does not come within the domain of positive history. We here find a 

 man, who during a long life enjoyed the esteem of his contemporaries, 

 raised by his attainments in nautical astronomy to an honourable 

 employment. The concurrence of many fortuitous circumstances gave 

 him a celebrity which has weighed upon his memory, and helped to 

 throw discredit on his character. Such a position is indeed rare in the 

 history of human misfortunes, and affords an instance of a moral stain 

 deepened by the glory of an illustrious name. It seems most desirable, to 

 examine, amid this mixture of success and adversity, what is owing to the 

 navigator himself, to the accidental errors arising from a hasty supervision 

 of his writings, or to the indiscretion of dangerous friends." Copernicus 

 himself contributed to this dangerous celebrity; for he also ascribes the 

 discovery of the new part of the globe to Vespucci. In discussing the 

 " centrum gravitatis" and " centrum magnitudinis" of the continent, he 

 adds; "magis id erit clarum, si addentur insulae setate nostra sub Hispa- 

 niarum Lusitaniaeque Principibus repertse et pnesertim America ab 

 inventore denominata navium prsefecto, quern, ob incompertam ejus 

 adhuc magnitudinem, alterum orbem terrarum putant." (Nicolai 

 Copernici de Eevolutionibus orbium ccelestium, libri sex, 1543, p. 2, a.) 



